TABLE OF CONTENTS 



I'uge 



Foreword in 



Introduction xxvn 



Acknowledgments xxxi 



I. In the Beginning, the Select Committee I 



Accomplishments of the select committee 2 



What led to the creation of the select committee? . . 2 



Meanwhile at the White House 4 



The Johnson committee hearings and Vanguard . . . 5 



Explorer I 6 



Establishment of the select committee 6 



Membership of the select committee (1958) .... 



The high hopes of Overton Brooks 8 



Future President joins select committee 9 



Hearings before the select committee 9 



Birth of the House Committee on Science and Astro- 

 nautics 13 



Joint Committee or separate House and Senate Com- 

 mittees? 15 



Committee on Science and Astronautics officially 



sanctioned 17 



The writing of the Space Act and the establishment 



of NASA 19 



Patent policy 22 



The National Aeronautics and Space Council .... 23 



Annual authorizations for NASA 24 



Reports of the House select committee 26 



II. The Overton Brooks Years, 1959-61 29 



Overton Brooks as chairman 29 



Committee membership 32 



Recruitment of staff 33 



Getting the committee organized 37 



First meeting of the committee 38 



The first public hearing 39 



"The Next Ten Years in Space, 1959-1969" 40 



The committee jurisdiction 41 



Establishment of subcommittees 46 



